Mintzzy’s self-titled extended play exists in direct defiance of the standard conventions of musical composition.
This is a project from a creator who has wholeheartedly rejected the traditions of standard songwriting. Listeners will not find any semblance of standard songwriting structure on this 13-minute work from the young artist working anonymously from Austin, Texas.
Instead, the homemade project, self-released in April, serves as a showcase — a direct validation that a pop-adjacent musical project can exist as a stream of consciousness; an auditory scrapbook that offers an entirely unconventional and seemingly unfiltered glimpse into the creative mind of the artist who crafted the work.
This eponymous introduction to the musician’s catalogue pushes forward and sets a footprint for what modern composition could become. Offering up songs like memories quickly jotted down in a notebook, the debut recording takes listeners from the peaceful oceanfront to honest and difficult confessions of self-doubt shared in a bedroom somewhere deep under the cover of night.
Mintzzy’s music exists as an interpretive document, capturing autobiographical moments, forgoing literality and instead reaching for the figurative.
It is a decision that enables the artist to build a much larger world that travels far beyond the bounds of the limitations of the low-fidelity recording.
With the intention of delving deeper into the artist’s unconventional work and process, Sound Dissection sat down with Mintzzy at the Austin coffee shop and bookstore First Light to learn more about the creative seeds and processes that brought their first formal release to completion.
This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
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Sound Dissection: How does the songwriting process begin for you?
Mintzzy: It’s so hard to start a project when you have this idea of exactly how you want it to turn out. It’s like you’re forfeiting the original idea. What you make is never going to turn out exactly how you’re intending, and it’s kind of heartbreaking; it’s kind of tragic, because you have this idea for what you want it to be, and it’s never exactly that, and often it turns out completely different.
Sometimes I do go in like, “I want this guitar part to sound muffled here, and then I want it to rise here,” and all this different stuff. You just got to get past it, you know? You just have to sit down and see what happens, and it always ends up completely different, and I always end up liking it more in the end.
I just got to remind myself of that.
You really don’t follow structure; you’re just doing your own thing, even in genre. So how does the process of creating a composition work for you?
I definitely don’t go into it like, “I need to break out of the rules.” I just sit down and everything just comes together. I don’t ever have a plan for what’s going to happen. I have so many emotions and thoughts going around in my head, and I have nowhere else to put them except to kind of just throw up in Logic. I just have to put it somewhere. I hear sounds throughout the day, or just different things that I have to put together, and it just comes out.
Sometimes it’s harder for me to put things into words. I think that’s part of why I make music. I work on songs for a very long time. I don’t like to rush it. A lot of those songs on Mintzzy were finished months ago, but I was just waiting for them to feel completely right. I have a lot of other music I was working on that just didn’t make it on, because it didn’t really flow with it.
Even if no one would listen to it, it’s just really great to have that there for myself and kind of look back on it.
Have you made an intentional choice to divert from traditional song structure?
I think it’s just because my brain is all over the place. Yeah, I don’t think there would be a reason to go down a traditional path. I hate songs that are like intro, verse, chorus, verse, bridge, verse and then outro. I’m really not trying to criticize songwriters like that at all — totally do whatever you want — but I don’t like it when I know where the song is going to go. I just get a bit bored.
You do have a lot of found recordings or field recordings in the music. Where is that sound sourced from?
Some of it is samples that I’ll pull from YouTube videos or just random stuff I find online. But I have been trying to do a lot more recordings of real things that I find. Sometimes I record my friends’ conversations, stuff like that. I recorded them saying the ABCs, and I’m putting it in a song right now.
The other day I heard a baby crying, and I was like, “I got to put that in a song.” I just want to put together different pieces of my life and have them in one place. Even if no one would listen to it, it’s just really great to have that there for myself and look back on it.
When you are making a piece of music, it is very free-flowing. As you are writing the composition, is each song about a specific moment or thing? For example, your opening song, “Castle Music,” is about that recent visit to Cape Cod, right?
Yeah, definitely, it’s about being by the ocean. I think that track is definitely just about being by water in general. Honestly, every time I listen to that song, it’s almost euphoric for me, because I can kind of close my eyes and go back to that. The East Coast is such a special place to me.
They’re so personal to me. It was kind of hard to release them because I just wanted to keep them for myself, because they’re just time capsules for me and portals for me.
But in writing, nothing’s ever straightforward. I just felt inspired, and I was just pulling sounds from there. I wasn’t specifically like, “I need to make a song about the ocean.”
I think I just got home and it just kind of happened.
Sometimes, if I have a really fun hangout with my friends, it’s not like I need to make a song about being with friends. It’s like I want to make a song to try and capture this part of my life so I can look back on it.
For those sourced recordings, you really have to pay attention to hear them on the record, and you’re performing under a pseudonym. Are you trying to keep a bit of distance?
I think a lot of it is subconscious; it’s really just what happens. But if I look back on it, I think a lot of it is maybe even being insecure about my own voice. It’s kind of like hiding it in a whisper and blending it into the song. I think a lot of songs have a beat, but then the main part of it is the vocals. I think, for me, maybe I’m not as confident in my voice or my lyrics, so I blend it together to kind of complement each other.
Tell me about the song “Lal.” This is a big moment where listeners are first encouraged to delve into your use of field recordings.
I think this song is definitely just like being trapped in my own self-criticism. It’s about being trapped in something, typically my own mind.
How about the song “Rabbit Hops”?
This is kind of like being in a relationship with a bad person.
It goes, “We’re back in your room, you’re telling me what to do. You used to call me dumb. I don’t like the way it rolled off your tongue.”
I haven’t actually really been in a horrible relationship, but I’ve just had so many friends where they talk and talk and talk about their terrible boyfriends, and I’m like, break up with him, and they just can’t do it. This is just kind of about being in a horrible relationship. It isn’t very harsh, but then the lyrics kind of come in. It’s kind of like a balance.
What inspired “Used2Hyde”?
I think the first half of the song, the piano part, reminds me of a barn in upstate New York. It reminds me of a day in that barn. I think the best memories I have are just having solitude and just being by myself. It is definitely an important part of making music for me. But the song, the lyrics, are about being with someone who is embarrassed and is just trying to hide.
Would you consider your songs autobiographical?
What’s funny is, a lot of the lyrics, almost all the lyrics I write, are not about myself. I just read books and I’m around so many people who go through these things. I guess I’m an empathetic person, and I can just live through them. So I just kind of end up writing about a lot of other people. Maybe it’s a way that I’m avoiding facing my own feelings. I think I would go crazy if I was only allowed to write about myself.
“Green Eye Girlll” seems to be getting a lot of traction with listeners. Can we delve into that piece a little bit?
Yeah, I put it up on Apple Music because I was getting a lot of requests from people who wanted it up there.
The song is low-key just about how much I hate fake Christians. There’s so many girls I know who have Bible verses in their social media bios, and they’re like, “Be kind, praise Jesus.” And then they’re the most evil people in the world. They’re so mean; they’re so out of touch with reality. They hate homeless people. They hate anyone who’s poor. I think some of the worst people are hypocritical Christians. Of course, there can be great Christians. There’s just so many sinners in the church, and it’s just accepted.
The rest of the song is about trying to leave your location and thinking things will change if you do. No matter how much you’re trying to change where you are, you still have the same mind. You think it’ll change, but it won’t, and you have to face what’s inside you.
When do you know what a song is about?
Sometimes it’ll feel really daunting for a while, but there’s usually a point where I just listen to it and I’m like, “Wow, I actually really like this.” I can feel where I pulled it from for each song, and it’s kind of the same thing with every song. I just think the brain is so complicated. There’s just so many different parts I’m drawing from, so many different aspects.
A lot of them won’t come together for a while, but I think it’s better than rushing them.
Can we jump into the logistics of your setup? What tools are you working with?
Yeah, I have a MacBook running Logic, and then I have a $20 microphone from — I don’t even know where I got it. It’s probably the worst mic you could ever own, but I don’t feel like spending money.
I have these Audio-Technica headphones; I got them two years ago originally for DJing. I use them for listening to music on my computer, and I use them for producing. They’re really good quality.
And then I use my guitar. It’s this acoustic-electric guitar I got on Facebook Marketplace a year ago. It’s my favorite guitar. I put half metal and half nylon strings on it. I don’t know why, but it sounds the best.
For an interface, I have a Focusrite Scarlett — the third generation. I also have this pretty big MIDI keyboard that I found in the woods in a shopping cart. Actually, my friend saw it and took it for me.
And then I have my harmonica.
Where do you get your inspiration?
A lot of inspiration is just from the world around me, you know, just kind of trying to observe things past the default setting, see things in a different way. I’m honestly just using a lot of stock instruments in Logic. I use the drums. I use the synths.
Like with “Lal,” a lot of what I do is record harmonica and then pitch it up and down and then just cut it up a bunch and kind of stretch it out.
I don’t know. I literally don’t even know how I thought of that or why I did it. I was just sitting down, and sometimes I get in a flow state — you could call it that — where I’m just doing random stuff and I literally can’t stop. Sometimes it’s like I black out. Then I’ll listen to what I did the next day and I’ll think, “What the hell did I just make? Wait, this is kind of cool.”
Do you write a lot of poetry to source your lyrics?
I’d say half the time it comes to me, and I think of words in my head, and I need to get it down right away. And then half the time I’m like, “I haven’t written in my notebook in like a week.” I need to force myself to think of something, and I’ll sit there and try to draw on maybe an experience I had yesterday and pull something from it.
It’s half and half — the words seizing me or me having to force myself to find them. It can be really hard, but it is always worth it. I am never going to regret working on a song and finding these lyrics.
It’s only going to benefit me.
In composition, especially working in a program like Logic, you have this sense of infinite possibility and an endless array of options. How do you manage that?
That’s definitely the number one most stressful thing for me that keeps me from moving forward. I always move past it, but that is part of why it takes me so long to make music. The stress and the dread of the number of possibilities — it’s definitely the worst part of it.
Do you have a system to keep you on track?
I do kind of have a process for guitar songs. I have it written on a piece of paper on my wall: then record it in a voice memo, then I’ll send it to a few people to get their opinion.
When I go to record on Logic, sometimes I’ll realize I need to add something more. It kind of keeps me more sane than being all over the place. I try to get people’s opinions first.
For electronic work, I think I get the most done when I set a goal within a set time frame.
I mean, the process is really just like the battle with myself. It’s about eventually getting the voice in my head that’s telling me to give up to shut up for like half an hour. It’s just like a constant angel and devil on my shoulder, and then sometimes I can get him to fly away for a second.
Do you begin to record with a full idea in your head and then record it?
It’s kind of different. For guitar songs, I write the base of it and then record it. Sometimes lyrics come to me, or I’ll look through my notebook. And then I will layer levels on top of that. So I’ll just write the riff, and then I’ll have like 10 other tracks over it where I just do random different sounds on the guitar, and it slowly falls into place.
For electronic work, something will just pop in my head and I’ll record a tiny little bit, and then I just kind of come back to it every day or every week, and then over time ideas will come. I’ll be out and then I’ll think of adding a cowbell; then when I add it I’ll come up with the idea to add a xylophone. Maybe the lyrics I wrote a week earlier will fit in place.
It’s literally scrapbooking ideas together.
I really wish I could give you an exact process that I follow, but I don’t.
Working at home without any limitations in the recording process as far as time or money is concerned, do you have any sort of guardrails that you put up to stay on track?
Honestly, no. All I know is that I want to be satisfied with it, and I want it to feel like a memory. I make sure that when I listen to it, I’m traveling back into something. I don’t think about a specific genre or anything else. I just need it to sound like a moment I captured or like a diary. I just need it to satisfy me, regardless of what other people’s opinions may be.
What compels you to move forward with this project, and what do you want to get out of it?
I started DJing first. It is really fun, but it kind of feels like being in a cover band. I needed to make my own stuff. I don’t want Mintzzy to be completely separate from who I am as a person. Why do I do it? It’s just what happens, you know? Whenever I’m going through really hard things, I just have to turn it into something. I feel like a lot of people have that — sometimes they just have to turn it into a painting, or they have to write. And for me, it’s like I just have to make a piece of music. It is what I am drawn to. It is a way to feel proud of myself. It’s a way to feel content and satisfied with the way I live. I would like for it to help improve someone else’s life.
I’m not trying to be someone I’m not. I’m literally just throwing up my brain into Logic, and if you enjoy it, I think that’s awesome. It makes me happy.
